During May 2013 many UK news outlets reported a new YouTube policy to begin charging for subscription services.
In a Telegraph report, subscriptions services to "30 content creators, including children's programers Sesame Street and Muppet creator The Jim Henson Co." and other popular channels.
Initial pricing for the subscriptions will start at 99 cents a month and could average $2.99 a month. This change would apply to 10 countries at the launch.
Google's switch to subscriptions for channels should not come as a surprise. The company began overtly crossing the path into the corporate world when short commercials serviced on popular videos.
The organization that created and publishes the famous racial justice website, Colorlines, has now re-branded to "Race Forward: The Center for Racial Justice Innovation."
A public relations statement on Race Forward's website states that the goal of rebranding is to "lead with race in the same way that [their] organization does, highlight with centrality of addressing 'Race' an the importance of paving the way 'Forward' to racial justice, and convey the urgency of moving forward using the word 'Race.'"
In a story explaining the shift, Rinku Sen describes the change as one "to reflect [their] mission and strategy most accurately"
Race Forward's news outlet remains largely untouched by this rebranding. However, on the Colorlines homepage there are two stories, including Sen's, explaining the process of rebranding the Applied Research Center and its refined charge for racial justice.
In an age of emerging interactive media and social networks, YouTube has changed the face of journalism and reporting. Before the rise of YouTube's partnering program, those who dreamed of being a TV personality or disseminator of news had to wait to be hired by a news outlet.
Now that independent users are able to spread their own stories, commentary, and interests, the way the world thinks of reporting is rapidly changing.
As reported in a NY Times story, creator of "What The Buck," Michael Buckley is prime example of a YouTube success story. Buckely was earning over $100,000 from YouTube advertisements through his comical commentary show.
For people who wish to expand their voices and create their own YouTube success stories, these users must be willing to put as much time and effort into their YouTube shows as bloggers. Buckley was putting over 40 hours a week into his segments before people began to notice his work.
Other success stories include actor Joe McHale of "The Soup," Ryan Hall of "Stereotypes" which examines assumptions based around race, gender, sexuality and pop culture. This series is a bit different because it was initially created by Pharrell Williams.
Stereotypes caters to a niche community of typically socially conscious people and those who are interested in or experience social inequalities in their daily lives. This segment tackles these serious issues in a comical way, by asking strangers a series of satirical questions around these topics. Stereotypes currently has nearly 260,000 subscribers.
The New York Times article addressing Talking Points Memo made a significant argument as to why the blog is so successful. The history of how TPM became a now-famous muckracking blog is based heavily on the concept of collaboration with not only other outlets, but their readers as well.
As Josh Marshall and his colleague worked to break their story on the firing of attorneys that did not agree with President Bush's agenda, they utilized their audience to be successful.
In an era of increasing media that focuses on being interactive with its audience, blogs and other online news sources must incorporate that interaction with readers in order to be successful and to have meaningful content.
Blogs are usually targeted at a particular audience - therefore serving these communities. How can a blogger expect to fully service his or community specified community without somehow involving this group of people in the creation, review, or distribution of its media.
Edward J. Snowden, who leaked classified NSA documents describing surveillance techniques by the US Government, has been denied clemency for his actions.
The American Civil Liberties Union describes clemency as "forgiveness for a crime and the granting of relief from all or part of a sentence"
In a New York Times Caucus article, chairwoman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, Diane Feinstein was quoted saying "he was trusted; he stripped our system." Feinstein claimed Snowden should have called the House Intelligence Committee with his information if he was a "legitimate" whistleblower.
The buying out of many independent newspapers is only limiting the number of different news outlets present in the U.S., thus altering the forms of reporting in these publications, and ultimately the competition. However, while stomping out the competition, larger corporations or owners may be stomping out themselves as well. The history and ultimate demise of the Chicago Tribune alludes to that very fact:
1979: the LA Times Mirror buys the Hartford Courant
April 1999: Hartford Courant (T-M) buys ALT Weeklies
March 2000: Chicago Tribune buys TM --> buys Courant and Alternative Weeklies
As a few liberal or left-leaning states begin to include bloggers under the label of "journalist," most states still ban untraditionally paid writers and news creators from cultural recognition and legal protection for their work. In a 2012 case regarding an investigative blogger "Crystal Cox," U.S. District Judge Marco Hernandez ruled that there are seven signs of "real journalism".
